italian rice casserole

Italian Night

Having to come home pretty late, I needed to plan something that would be easy and pretty hands-off. I cooked an Italian rice casserole full of vegetables: onion, garlic, pepper, spinach, olives, chickpeas and green beans.

After all the vegetables were chopped and the garlic, onion, chickpeas and peppers were sauteed, there was nothing to do but add the rice, the rest of the vegetables and stock. I baked it for 40 minutes and dinner was on the table without a whole bunch of hassle. The taste was pretty nice, too, so this was a success as far as I was concerned.

Cost Breakdown;

rice: $1

green beans, spinach: $3

olives, onion, garlic: $1

peppers: $2

chickpeas: $2

Total to feed a family of 8:

$9.00

malai kofta

Indian Night

An awesome Indian dish is Malai Kofta. Kofta means "balls" (as in meatballs) and Malai means "cream." Neither of these would lend themselves to veganism and I haven't found a vegan version anywhere.

The kofta can be made with meat or vegetables or beans or cheese. The kofta in Malai Kofta uses paneer, a homemade cheese.

So, let's veganize it!

The sauce is a tomato based gravy with a little cream and some spices, but nothing all that complicated.  In  order to achieve the creaminess that cream brings to the Malai party, I used cashew cream and cashew butter and a few Tablespoons of Earth Balance to up the richness of the sauce.

I made the koftas using chickpeas and fresh herbs. I pan fried them a little and then finished them in the oven.

Although this meal was very successful in terms of flavor, it does not have quite the flavor that cream lends to the original. While there are some dishes that I truly try to achieve authenticity with, this particular one tasted so good that I am not bummed by not hitting the target exactly. It most certainly resembles Malai Kofta, but since I am not using dairy cream, the taste is slightly different. So, if you are not expecting exact replication, this is a total knockout.

For the greens I made the Spinach and Kale Bhaji out of Flavors of India.

Cost Breakdown

cashew: $2

tomato: $3

spices: $1

chickpeas: $2 

herbs: $2

kale, spinach: $4

garlic, onion: $1

Total to feed a family of 6:

$15.00

stuffed shells with creamy tomato sauce

Italian Night

I have made stuffed shells before, and the filling is the same spinach-tofu blend I use for the lasagna, but I have never made a creamy tomato sauce.

Outstanding!

The whole pan disappeared in about 15 minutes, not good for the digestion, I'm afraid. The sauce is my regular tomato sauce, but at the end I added a cup of cashew cream (strained) and heated it until it thickened.

Stuffing the shells is the most time-consuming part, so just make sure the under-cooked shell is open all the way (not curled under), before scooping the filling into it using a teaspoon.

You can blend your tomato sauce before pouring it on the shells in case you have a daughter who picks out any vegetable pieces large enough to grasp.

De-licious!

Cost Breakdown:

shells: $2

tomatoes: $3

tofu: $2

spinach: $2

garlic, onion, spices: $1

cashew: $2

Total to feed a family of 5:

$12.00

Spinach-Tofu Filling for pastas Recipe

braciole

Food Network Friday Challenge

Tami Noyes, author of American Vegan Kitchen, over at Vegan Appetite blog, challenged us to recreate Anne Burrell's Braciole. Braciole is an American-Italian dish of rolled beef that is stuffed and braised in tomato sauce.

I have seen many variations on this and each time that I do I think - this would be great vegan. Well, here was my chance to make it.

So the obvious question is - where's the beef? Or more to the point, what will replace the beef? While at first I thought a thin slice of seitan would be great, seitan does not bend or roll very easily. The solution of course, is to roll not seitan but gluten (which is raw seitan). I made a gluten using my Firm Seitan recipe. This worked beautifully and the dish turned out super delicious.

The stuffing was rustic bread soaked in rice milk, spinach, pine nuts, onion, garlic and three cheezes - Daiya, Follow Your Heart and Parma! .

The tomato sauce is a simple sauce of onion, garlic, tomatoes, and red wine. During the braising the sauce cooks down to a lovely, rich sauce. My cooking time was 2 hours on 325 degrees, but I think 300 would have been better since there was a slight seitan-y flavor. It was very slight and the tomato sauce covered it well, but a lower temp might help keep the aftertaste even less.

Everyone liked this! I also made a How-To Breakdown of the recipe, so take a gander. 

Cost Breakdown

seitan: $3

spinach, bread, pine nuts: $3

onion, garlic: $2

Daiya, Parma!, Follow Your Heart: $5

kale, orzo: $4

tomatoes: $3.50

Total to feed a family of 6:

$20.50

How-To Breakdown

north indian

Indian Night

As soon as my kids got wind that I was making Indian (again) they asked: are you going to make the same things again?

Are you kidding me??

There is a whole country of food to make!

But, it does seem, at least to kids before they tasted it, that indeed, Mom did make the same things again: legumes, potatoes and rice. It was only after they tasted it that the light bulb went off - this is totally different than last week's Indian.

It was either my cooking skills or South Indian's penchant for sour, because they enjoyed the tonight's North Indian more. 

Tonight I made a split red lentil (masoor dal) Dal with spinach and tomatoes, Chana Masala, chickpeas with gravy - one of the only vegan items on an Indian restaurant menu, and Alu Matar, a potato and peas dish. 

The Alu Matar recipe I got out of Flavors Of India by Shanta Nimbark Sacharoff. I met this lady in San Francisco where she has an Indian shop. Her cookbook is excellent and the recipes are easy. This is the book I have used before and while it does not have all the recipes that one can drool over in a restaurant, it is a great place to start. If you are looking for a good, simple Indian cookbook, look no further.

The chickpeas in the dish above need to be cooked fresh since the cooking broth is important in the preparation. Believe me, I've tried making Chana Masala on more than a few occasions since it is Cat's favorite dish, with little success until tonight.

Cost Breakdown:

onion, garlic: $1

spices, herbs: $1

tomatoes, peppers: $3.50

potatoes: $1.50

peas, lentil, chickpea: $3

spinach: $1

rice: $.50

Total to feed a family of 6:

$11.50

Chana Masala Recipe

DAL WITH SPINACH PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

garlicky ribz

We made a few recipes out of American Vegan Kitchen by Tamasin Noyes. I love garlic and this sounded great.

She has a recipe for the seitan in the very same book. While I totally love all of Tami's recipes, I do not care for steamed seitan. When we first went vegan, the first thing I disliked about seitan was the 'seitan' flavor. Even packaged seitan has that flavor, which is one reason that I make my own. The seitan achieves that aftertaste because it is cooked at too high heat - steaming is hotter than boiling water, which is one no-no with cooking seitan. Do not boil! Whenever I cook my seitan on the stove top I constantly monitor the temperature with a thermometer to make sure it never climbs above 212 degrees. Of course, I am now too lazy for such vigilance, so now I bake it in the oven, low and slow. There is no aftertaste and the flavors are great. The textures vary according to the type of seitan being made.

With that said, the ribz were a hit and the kids loved it. The BBQ Sauce was fabulous - tangy, sweet and garlicky.

To accompany it, I made her Macaroni and Cheese with Greens. The sauce isn't as thick as I expected it to be, but the flavors were delicious. Even the kids liked this, with the fresh greens in it.

My hubby was given a few beautiful yellow squashes by a coworker, and I had visions of Luby's cheesy squash dish dancing before my eyes. Waaay before we went veg, we were regular costumers of Luby's, a cafeteria type restaurant, and one of our favorite dishes was this cheesy squash recipe. See? There are more than a variety of reasons why becoming vegan is a great idea!

To make this vision a reality, I cooked my half-moon-cut squash until they developed some color, sprinkled a few tablespoons of flour on it, cooked the flour for a few minutes and made a sauce with almond milk, nutritional yeast, thyme and fresh pepper. This made a nice thick sauce, that was reminiscent of cheesiness. I was not concerned with overcooked squash in this dish - it sort of begs for it because of the creaminess of the sauce.

A little about the cost: We grew the tomatoes and peppers and the squash was given to us, but I priced it as I would have had I purchased them at Whole Foods.

Great dinner!

Cost Breakdown:

seitan: $2

tomatoes, sugar, flour: $4

spices, herbs: $1

pasta, spinach: $4

squash, red pepper, onion, garlic: $4

Total to feed a family of 7:

$14.00

creamy spinach and artichoke dip

Our homeschool group had our Not-Back-To-School potluck picnic today. I brought my Spinach and Artichoke Dip and it was a hit! One mom even called it "her dessert." It's great to have pleased a nice bunch of moms with something as easy as this.

I will be posting the recipe soon, so hang on. This has spinach, artichokes, Better Than Cream Cheese, veganaise, lemon, and roasted garlic. I've been making this for potlucks for years, always bringing home an empty dish.

A little about the cost.

I had to buy the artichokes from a Safeway store because Whole Foods was not open yet, and I paid $4 for a bottle of artichokes that I pay $2 for at Whole Foods. If you are fortunate enough to live near one and are not shopping there for the 'specialy' items, Whole Foods is a bargain. Their strict buying practices are a bonus as they do not sell anything of questionable ingredients; in fact, it was as a Whole Foods clerk was pulling  Willow brand margarine off the shelves that I learned the hazards of hydrogenated vegetable oil. Whole Foods does not deserve their 'whole paycheck' nickname if you shop for wholesome, great groceries.

Cost Breakdown:

spinach: $2

artichoke: $4

panko: $1

lemon: $.50

bread/cracker: $3

garlic, olive oil: :$.75

veganaise, Better than Cream Cheese: $3

Total to feed 15 people apps:

$14.25

seitan wrap

I had some seitan in the freezer and an abundance of tortillas. It was only logical to make some seitan wraps.

I used a basic seitan that I made a month or so ago and had it on hand for easy cooking days. I put some veganaise into the wrap and then grilled it. It reminded me of the Rolly Polly Sandwiches that litter the country - only I can eat everything on mine. I added some spinach into my wrap because the kids chose their greens in a side-salad form. Applesauce was their chosen fruit along with some yellow plums from the CSA.

I just got myself a cast-iron panini press - the top press that is. A cast-iron panini press is $400+! Yikes! I am trying to avoid bringing more Teflon stuff into the house seeing as I am trying to get rid of them, so this was my next best bet. In light of my new kitchen gadget, I grilled my wrap to test it out. It worked relatively well, as you can see in the photo. Preheating it is the way to get the top somewhat hot. I'll let you know how it is the next time I use it since cast-iron takes me a little while to get just right. It's like it has a personality of its own that I have to get used to.

Cost Breakdown:

tortillas: $4

seitan: $2

veganaise: $1

salad, spinach: $3

Total to make 4 servings:

$10.00

warm walnut spinach salad

Lite

Our lunch on Sundays is lite because our dinner is a family favorite.

W had a warm spinach salad today, inspired by Vegan Planet by Robin Robertson. She adds sweetener to her dressing, but I omitted that because I soaked my walnuts. The pungency that you taste when eating the walnut is tannic acid. If you soak the nuts in filtered water for a few hours to overnight, the tannic acid is rinsed away. It is not only better for you, but it also tastes better.

We added apples, radishes and cherry tomatoes. A toast with a little garlic rubbed on it completed our lite lunch.

Now we are ready to stuff ourselves with Reuben. Kidding. You should never 'stuff' yourself. Bad example for the kids.

Cost Breakdown:

apple: $1

tomatoes: $1

radish: $.50

spinach: $2

lemon, walnut, oil: $2

bread: $1

Total for a satisfying lunch for 4:

$7.50

spinach and mushroom strata

Brunch

I made this recipe on May 1. It is from 1,000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson. I have been a fan of Robin's books since the first one I picked up way back when - Vegan Planet.

Back to the recipe: It says it makes 6 servings, but after I assembled it, I knew this would be too much for my family and I didn't picture this as all that popular as a leftover. So, I put it into two square cake pans and froze one. I grabbed it out of the freezer today and put it in the toasted oven - more welcome during the summer, and baked it for a little over an hour.

It turned out just as good as the first time and I didn't have to lift a finger. My kind of brunch.

The dish has spinach, mushrooms, onion, tofu, a little cheese and cubed bread.

Cost Breakdown:

onion, garlic, mushroom: $2

spinach: $2

tofu: $2

bread: $2

cheese: $2

Total to make 6 servings as written:

$10.00

american lasagna

It is Italian/Pasta Night

This is the best lasagna. Period. Well, maybe Bryanna's Italian Lasagna with Bolognese Sauce is a rival :)

This is not a vegetable lasagna, because my kids' first question after 'What is for dinner?' is "Is there anything weird in it?' Define 'weird' as 'vegetable.' Ahh. Gets old. I do not know how they overlook the fact that the ricotta-style filling has 8 cups of spinach, but I don't care! They love it and as long as there are no odd bits of zucchini or mushrooms to bite into, they are happy. If it was up to me, there would be pieces of zucchini and eggplant and pepper and mushrooms, but, alas, I leave this one alone. For now.

This lasagna is easy to make, and I hope that is not just because I've been making it for over seven years. It has 5 layers of: pasta, spinach-basil tofu filling, ground Boca, Daiya-Follow Your Heart cheeses, homemade pasta sauce. I use Whole Foods No Boil Lasagna noodles, but I've had success using regular lasagna noodles and not pre-cooking them. Just make sure to cover your pan very tightly with foil (doming it a bit so the cheese does not stick to it) and extend the cooking time about 15 minutes. Adding a 2-3 T of water to the bottom of the pan before assembling the lasagna gives extra insurance of it getting cooked properly. 

This has to be one of our more expensive meals, but putting things into perspective, each generous serving is $2.70. You can't even buy a frozen meal for that much.

Cost Breakdown:

noodles: $2

spinach, basil, tofu: $8

Boca: $3

tomatoes: $5

onion, garlic, olive oil: $1

Daiya and Follow Your Heart: $8  

Total for 10 servings:

$27.00

raw alfredo primavera

Raw Night

To the delight of my children, I made another raw meal. For us, Mondays are the ideal day to make raw because that is when I go to Whole Foods and the vegetables are extra fresh - very important when they are naked, so to speak. It is especially important that summer squash be fresh because the older they get the more bitter they become. Not a good thing.

I lost a part to my spiral slicer, so I just used my knife to cut the squash into thin, long strips. I tossed the slices in a little olive oil and dehydrated them for about an hour. Sort of the extent of my cooking tonight. I also tossed some spinach with diced red onion and dehydrated that, too.

The olive 'bread' I tossed in the dehydrator the night before; it didn't need to be crispy because I wasn't shooting for a cracker.

The Alfredo sauce was really excellent. I wouldn't say it is 'Alfredo' sauce, but calling it Macadamia Pasta Sauce fits better for how it tasted. The sauce had a little garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and coconut vinegar. Mixed with the squash strips, tomatoes, olives and the spinach, it tasted very flavorful and quite good. Another raw surprise for David. It was harder to sell to the kids, though, who passionately dislike squash of any season. This meal was inpired by recipes in the cookbook Eating Raw by Mark Reinfeld.

Cost Breakdown:

nuts: $4

vegetables: $6

olives, oil, lemon: $1

flax seeds, sunflower seeds, olives: $3

Total to annoy 3 kids and feed 2 adults:

$14.00

Macadamia Pasta Sauce Recipe

artichoke and sun-dried tomato italian easter pie with herbed crust

This is my version of the classic Italian Easter Pie. 

This is a meal that is typically served on holidays. I can almost understand why: there are a dozen reasons. Because I did not use the DOZEN eggs most recipes I looked at called for, I needed to up the ingredients, and therefore I wound up enhancing the flavor. I put artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, sausage and homemade tofu ricotta in there. The crust was a snap to make, using the food processor, and I added a teaspoon each of oregano and basil to it. It came out flaky and crispy and oh, so delicious.

I am not a fan of bland, so I am glad this turned out so wonderful.

Cost Breakdown:

crust: $1

sausage: $1

artichoke and spinach: $3

onion, seasoning, garlic: $1

tofu, lemon, almond: $3

salad: $3

Total to feed a family of 5:

$12.00

ITALIAN EASTER PIE PRINTER-FRIENDLY RECIPE

classic pesto

Mikel cooked lunch today. If I didn't know any better, I'd think he was Italian, having chosen most of last week's Italian dishes. His choice for today is no exception: Pesto.

Pesto is one of those super fabulous sauces that is easy to make, store, and cook with. Not to mention tasty.

The pesto used today was made late last week because I did not want the basil to go bad. In addition to the basil, I also add some dark leafy greens. Covered with some olive oil, it can keep for a long time. Oh, did I mention it is heavenly? Mikel used a brown rice pasta to go with his pesto, and his sister slathered some on a whole grain bread and toasted it.

garlic-lemon, spinach pasta

Whole Foods had this pasta at one point, waay back when. The kids really liked it, so here it is. It is the simple recipes that tend to be the best; really, there is nothing to this one: garlic, pasta, olive oil, lemon, spinach.

I know I've come to the rhubarb party a little late, so I didn't want to make a strawberry-rhubarb right off the bat - although I am sure that is on its way, too, seeing as there are three more bunches in the fridge.

I made a rhubarb-PEACH crumble. Saw the peaches for the first time at Whole Foods yesterday, so why not? I think the kids' favorite part of the Rhubarb-Peach Crumble is the 'crumble.' It is wonderfully sweet, tart and the topping is fabulously crunchy.

seitan scallopini

If you are not familiar with Bryanna Clark Grogan, it is time you should be. Tonight's dinner was inspired by her scallopini recipes in

 Nonna's Italian Kitchen.

I made some seitan a few nights ago, and if you are intimidated by making seitan, don't be. (I am in the process of making a video to help you conquer the fear of seitan.) I made a 'light', 'chicken'-flavored seitan, and sliced it 1/4 inch thin. After breading the slices, I pan-fried them until golden, added mushrooms, shallots, and garlic, and about a cup of wine (or Marsala, sherry, or just vegetable broth). I let the sauce reduce and served the cutlets with whipped potatoes and sauteed garlic spinach.

Originally I had the cutlets over pureed baby turnips, but that was a bit much for the rest of the family - too bitter for them - so the picture is of whipped potatoes. If you do use potatoes instead of turnips, consider changing the greens to kale or rapini (broccoli rabe). - it will give a nice flavor contrast. I liked it a lot with the turnips, however, so here is your chance to use up those last turnips in your CSA box. 

Seitan Scallopini Recipe

cheeze and spinach enchiladas

This was an absolute hit! With everyone, except my oldest daughter, who does not care for enchiladas or spinach, which removes this dish from the running for her. The rest of us were okay with that, though; more for us! I used half Daiya Cheddar and half Follow Your Heart Mozzarella, shredded, and melted them on the stove, adding the spinach and grilled onions, and a little chili powder. Not only did it melt well, but it tasted creamy and divine. This is a very high 5 stars, only lowered because Daughter Number One doesn't like anything, it seems.

 

spinach-artichoke, potato gratin

Thursday night is European/Potato night.

Again, a quick and easy dish to make. The inspiration was a recipe from 1000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson. I saw the recipe and my mind went "Spinach and artichoke dip!" So, I seared the sliced bottled artichokes in garlic olive oil (saute garlic in the oil and remove the slices before they burn), added the spinach to it, and cooked it until the spinach wilted, returning the garlic back to the pan. After thinly slicing about six Yukon gold potatoes, and making a layer, I added half of the spinach mixture, seasoning the layers as I worked. Another layer of potatoes, spinach, and the last layer of potatoes rounded out the dish. I then mixed about a cup of rice milk with 1/2 cup of Better Than Cream Cheese (I blended it to incorporate the cheese well.) and poured it over the gratin. Covering it very tightly, I baked it at 375 for about an hour and a half. The oven did most of the work. Verdict? All but my oldest daughter loved it. (Spinach is on her no-no list, as well as most of the vegetable world.) Sigh.

Letting the gratin sit for about 15 minutes lets the potatoes rest and the gratin comes out very clean. My youngest asked for some 'cheese' on the gratin, so I put about half a bag of Daiya cheddar flavor on the top and broiled it until it melted (not a necessary component, however). This was a huge hit - only one serving remained.